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EthanSayfo t1_je0rv6l wrote

The community has every right to be highly incredulous of private industry’s ability to behave in an environmentally friendly manner.

The community has every right to be very skeptical of Back River’s ability to safely evaluate “treated” water coming from providers such as Clean Harbors, and then deal with that water properly.

Everyone has a right to seriously question EPA’s ability to carry out their original mission, especially in the wake of being turned into an ANTI-regulation agency during the Trump administration.

If Clean Harbors doesn’t want to have these types of reactions, then maybe they should be putting more focus on getting Baltimore to fix its issues with the particular facility they are partnered with.

Communities are told left and right “this is safe, don’t worry!” Who tells us this? Large corporations and Federal agencies that clearly do not give af.

The environment is going to shit. Who’s to blame? Major polluters, the corporations. They have earned NO trust. They ONLY push for less regulation.

Fuck ‘em! I’m glad the Mayor used his power to say no.

Let’s go, I dunno, a few MONTHS maybe, without a real issue occurring at the treatment plant? Then we can decide if Baltimore should be dumping very large volumes of other people’s waste into our system.

Someone said the water coming from Ohio is said to be “borderline drinkable.” What a ridiculous load. I’d like to see them volunteer to have their own family drink it, bathe in it.

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tylersusername t1_je0wdcu wrote

If you read the statement Clean Harbors released to Baltimore City officials, they said the wastewater was initially tested and found to contain vinyl chloride levels between 0-62 parts per billion among the various railcars. For reference, the EPA set the regulatory limit for vinyl chloride in waste to be 200 ppb under the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act of 1976. It’s minimal contaminant that requires simple treatment. Sure it’s good to be skeptical, but shouldn’t we also trust the national experts to decide where is the best place to get rid of this waste? This waste has to go somewhere.

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EthanSayfo t1_je0xk29 wrote

Why should we trust environmental officials that are largely beholden to for-profit corporations? Are you aware of the shift in mission EPA took on in the last administration, and how many competent people left Federal government during that time?

Have you observed the state of the environment, lately? The one with massive amounts of problems, that said officials are supposed to be protecting us from?

If Back River and all aspects of the facility and its operations had an exceptional track record, do you think people would be responding this forcefully? No, they wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have made a string of calls, if I knew they were capable of even their basic mission.

I have an idea. Let’s build a massive toxic chemical containment facility on the property of everyone whose net worth is over, say, $100 million. We can build facilities sized proportionally to their net worth. We’d clean the environment up right fast, if this was the approach.

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rmphys t1_je28jhm wrote

This is literally the right wing logic used to ignore climate change by claiming the scientist who present the data profit off it. Stop spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.

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JiffKewneye-n t1_je0u15h wrote

hi there. would you like to post any relevant background or work experience?

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EthanSayfo t1_je0wj7b wrote

Yes, I’m not incredibly biased toward for-profit corporations with lax oversight due to working in the industry and receiving a paycheck from said corporation.

You?

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ocaesar t1_je15xj9 wrote

You are like the exact person this book was written about, lol. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_American_Life

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EthanSayfo t1_je16619 wrote

Boo hoo, the toxic water isn’t coming to Baltimore and you’re very sad about it. Cry me a polluted river.

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